Globalization and Aspects of Translation

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Globalization and Aspects of Translation


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Globalization and Aspects of Translation

Edited by

Said M. Shiyab (Editor-in-Chief)

Marilyn Gaddis Rose, Juliane House and John Duval


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Globalization and Aspects of Translation,

Edited by Said M. Shiyab, Marilyn Gaddis Rose, Juliane House and John Duval

This book first published 2010

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright 2010 by Said M. Shiyab, Marilyn Gaddis Rose, Juliane House and John Duval and

contributors

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or

otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-4438-1965-4, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-1965-7


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword ................................................................................................... vii

Said M. Shiyab

Acknowledgements ..................................................................................xiii

Chapter One................................................................................................. 1Globalization and Its Impact on Translation

Said M. Shiyab

Chapter Two.............................................................................................. 11

English as a Global Lingua Franca: A Threat to Multilingualism?

Juliane House

Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 36

Training Conference Interpreters in a Globalised WorldGarry Mullender

Chapter Four.............................................................................................. 43

Translation and Multilingual Monitoring

Mathieu Guidere

Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 53

Small Parallel Corpora in an English-Arabic Translation

Classroom: No Need to Reinvent the Wheel in the Era of GlobalizationHammouda Ben Salhi

Chapter Six ................................................................................................ 68Translation Critique of the Arab Postcolonial Condition

Salah Basalama

Chapter Seven............................................................................................ 78

The Paradigm of Translation

Jane Elizabeth Wilhelm


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Table of Contentsvi

Chapter Eight............................................................................................. 88Optimizing Specialized Translation Process by Knowledge Organization

Sonia Halimi

Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 100

Innovative Teaching Strategies for Training Graduates in Medical

Translation

Maria-Cornelia Wermuth

Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 111

Literary Texts and Literary Translation in Linguistic-Semiotic Perspective

Alena Petrova

Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 126

On the Translation of Poetry

Abdul-Fattah Al-Jabr

Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 145Constructing Canons: Selecting Texts for Translation in the Gulf

Christopher Brown

Chapter Thirteen...................................................................................... 165The Ambivalent Status of Lexical Repetition in English-Arabic

Translated TextsRasoul AlKhafaji

Addresses of Contributors ....................................................................... 191

Index of Names........................................................................................ 195

Index of Terms ........................................................................................ 197


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FOREWORD

SAID M.SHIYAB

The present book came to light as a result of the ideas discussed during our

1st International Conference on Translation/Interpretation and the Impact

of Globalization, held at the United Arab Emirates University. I amgrateful to Marilyn Gaddis Rose, Juliane House, and John Duval for theirdedication, efforts and professionalism. Their vision and every-present

energy helped me understand and in fact appreciate the many venueswithin the fields of language, linguistics and translation.

This book has attempted to capture the quintessence or the epitome

embodied in the concepts of translation and globalization. It also attempted

to bridge the gap between the globalizing and globalized realms. Above

all, it brings to light the diversity of areas in globalization and aspects oftranslation that have impacted the notions of cultural communication,

translators code of ethics, metaphorical meaning, code switching, media,

etc. Scholars from all over the world contributed to this book, representing

counties such USA, Canada, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium,

Austria, Tunisia, Bahrain, Jordan, and United Arab Emirates. Those

scholars have done their research in their home countries on other parts of

the world. Because of this diversity, I believe this book genuinely offers

an international experience.

In Chapter 1, Said Shiyab examines different aspects of globalization in

relation to translation. Faces of globalization are highlighted to make the

point that globalization does not only evolve around language and/or

translation changes, but also around information technology. One of the

most significant points that this chapter addresses is that scholars,

including translators and interpreters, cannot control how languages

change as globalization is a result of technological advancements our

society is witnessing these days and, as a consequence of this, ourlanguages changes in accordance with the translation market needs and

those who use it for marketing purposes.


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Forewordviii

In Chapter 2, Juliane House discusses a significant issue, which iscurrently discussed widely: whether and to what degree English as the

worlds most prestigious language in its role as a global lingua franca is athreat to multilingualism. House first explains how the term English as a

lingua franca

(ELF) has come to mean; secondly, she discusses the controversial issue of

whether ELF is a threat to multilingualism or rather provides a chance for

global understanding from four perspectives: (1) socio-political, (2)

linguistic, (3) psycholinguistic and (4) pedagogic. In the third and final

part of this chapter, House draws some conclusions and provides various

implications.

In Chapter 3, Garry Mullender examines some of the on-line resources

designed for trainee and practicing interpreters and Lisbon Universitys

involvement in various distance-teaching projects in the fields of

conference interpreter training, ranging from the European Masters in

Conference Interpreting, to its own Virtual Learning Environment. Thisplatform is not only used for the universitys programs, but is also the

basis for a distance-teaching project with Eduardo Mondlane University in

Maputo, Mozambique. Mullender points out that ever since Portuguese

set sail in the 15th century on their voyages of discovery, whichincluded expeditions to the Gulf region, they have used interpreters to help

them communicate. Todays globalization has created new places andsituations in which interpreters are required and also changed the way in

which we communicate.

Mullender argues that people no longer have to undertake lengthy journeys

to meet, but do so virtually, through a range of different media, which

have transformed the way people do business and are now changing the

way in which interpreters, particularly conference interpreters, work.While information and communication technologies undoubtedly pose

challenges for the profession, they also provide a wealth of training and

life-long learning opportunities.

In Chapter 4, Mathieu Guidere examines the role played by the translator

in monitoring activities. He demonstrates that multilingual monitoring

allows translators to step out of their ancillary condition and into the

realms of action and decision-making. With a command of search and

documentary tools, they will be able to fully draw on their qualities aslinguists and analysts.


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Globalization and Aspects of Translation ix

Salhi, in Chapter 5, reports on an experiment that was carried out at theFaculty of Arts and Humanities of Sousse University to undergraduate

students to demonstrate how small parallel corpora can be used to enhancethe fluency and professionalism of translator trainees and facilitate the

teaching and learning processes on the basis of a collaborative approach to

the translation exercise.

He points out that one of the main advantages brought about by the

phenomenon of globalization is the easy and quick access to electronic

texts (Zanettin, 2002) as well as their availability on a large scale, whereas

in the past only printed texts were available. Electronic texts can be easily

retrieved, parsed, concordanced and aligned to serve not only translation

research and practice, but also the process of translation teaching and

learning. Using parallel (or translation) corpora in translation, classrooms

have now become common practice amongst translation teachers and

students alike. They are designed to make students familiar with the genres

of texts to be translated and, thus, to enhance their understanding of source

texts and improve their usage of target words (and terminology). Studentsare in fact now confronted with copious amounts of both original texts and

their associated translations (Zanettin, 1998).

In Chapter 6, there are two folds. The first part is theoretical. In it, SalahBasalamah explains his take on translation beyond the linguistic transfer

and how it can be considered as a paradigm. The second part is critical,which includes the applied aspect, along with the historical and cultural

context for the critique. Basalamah believes that any project of

constructing a new society has to start with and should permanently be

accompanied by a critical apparatus. However, when the critique is

fundamentally driven to a certain context by an acute sense of belonging,

it should be considered as a self-critique. Basalamah goes on to say that

whatever may be the harshness of the critical observations made in thischapter, it has to be understood as a contribution towards self-reform and

self-development, not a contribution brought about by means of exclusive

power and hegemony.

In Chapter 7, Jane Wilhelm discusses Paul Ricoeurs paradigm of

translation in the context of his hermeneutics and his theory of the text as a

model of interpretation. Translation, according to Ricoeur, is the

paradigm of hermeneutics, the model of the basic interpretative process

of bringing to understanding what is foreign, strange or unintelligible.Wilhelm believes that the hermeneutical model of translation and


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Forewordx

exchange of memories and narratives between nations, with a view toreconciliation, as suggested by Paul Ricoeur, could be the future ethos

of European politics, and eventually of cultural and political dialogue in anage of globalization.

In Chapter 8, Sonia Halimi explores the amount of knowledge students

have in specialized fields. Halimi questions whether there is a method for

a good exploitation of information in the text dealt with and the documents

used as reference, and whether there are educational strategies that can be

increasingly effective in the development of translation practitioners.

Halimi believes that each if these questions should be addressed

independently.

In Chapter 9, Wermuth believes that in view of the relevance as well as the

importance of medical translations, it seems obvious to reconsider the

teaching strategies traditionally adopted in the training of medical

translators. In this chapter, Wermuth addresses the innovative teaching

strategies adopted in the workshop in Medical Translation which is part ofthe MA Translation program of the Department of Applied Language

Studies (Sub-Faculty of Linguistics, Lessius/Catholic University of

Leuven, Belgium). She points out that within an academic setting,

innovative teaching strategies can prepare MA students in TranslationStudies to efficiently integrate themselves into the real life of medical

translation.

Chapter 10 discusses the linguistic-semiotic aspects of literary translation.

Elena Petrova reports on experiments she conducted to explore the effect

of students awareness of the linguistic-semiotic aspects of literary

translation. She believes that knowledge of the linguistic-semiotic aspects

of literary translation has practical benefits simply because, on the one

hand, it improves the poetic competence of translators, so they becomeaware of the interplay between the primary and secondary structures in

literary source texts, and on the other, it helps translators overcome typical

errors, which are related to the specific nature of literary texts.

In Chapter 11, Jabr examines the translation of poetry by focusing on four

translations of Shakespeare's sonnet Shall I compare thee to a summer's

day? into Arabic. The four translations were first given to four Arab

professors of translation and literature, two in each domain, to rate them in

terms of their appropriate rendition of the meaning of the original poeminto the TL poem and their conformity to the poetic features of the genre.


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Globalization and Aspects of Translation xi

The raters were asked to briefly comment on their ratings. By the sametoken, a reasonably elaborate analysis of the translations is then provided.

Jabr hopes that the implications of this study would open a new vista formore intensive research into this rather sporadically trodden area.

In Chapter 12, Brown reports on two major translation initiatives launched

in the United Arab Emirates: Kalima and Tarjem. The two projects

represent a joint government and private sector commitment to translating

hundreds of books from a variety of disciplines, cultures, and languages

into Arabic. While the concept is wholly praiseworthy and that the

swiftness with which they have begun to produce and market volumes is

indeed impressive, Brown believes that the choices of texts already

completed as well as those slated for translation is curious indeed. Brown

raises serious questions about the cultural health of the region such as

whether or not the creation of such a list represents a kind of canon

formation and the philosophical or ideological beliefs that drive the

formation of this collection of titles.

Chapter 13 investigates an interesting and intriguing feature manifested in

translated texts regardless of the languages involved. Such feature,

according to Al Khafaji, is clear or manifested in the simultaneous presence

of two contradictory textual phenomena, viz. the deletion of lexicalrepetition in translations as well as its addition. The intricate relationship

between these two ambivalent phenomena and their co-occurrence intranslated texts have attracted the attention of many translation scholars

recently, mainly as a result of the analysis of large electronic corpora of

translated texts in different languages. Al Khafaji describes and interprets

the nature and function of this relationship within the context of English

and Arabic translated texts along with a report on the analysis of the bi-

directional parallel corpora together with some sample examples from data

analysis.


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my colleagues and co-editors, Dr. Marilyn G. Rose

(State University of New York, Binghamton Campus), Juliane House

(Hamburg University), and John Duval (University of Arkansas) for their

valuable input and observations. I would also like to thank CambridgeScholars Publishing (CSP), UK for their encouragement and for publishing

this book.

Special thanks go to my wife, Tammy, and my daughter, Amy, who

understood what I was going through during the preparation of this book.

Without their understanding and encouragement, this book would have

never seen the light.


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CHAPTER ONE

GLOBALIZATION AND ITS IMPACTON TRANSLATION

SAID M.SHIYABUNITED ARAB EMIRATES UNIVERSITY

Introduction

This chapter examines different aspects of globalization in relation totranslation. Facets of globalization will be highlighted to make the pointthat globalization does not only evolve around translation or linguistic

changes, but is first and foremost about information technology, andpolitical and economic changes. One of the most significant issuesexamined in this chapter is the fact that scholars, including translators andinterpreters, cannot control how languages change, simply becauseglobalization comes as a result of technological advancements and, as aconsequence, our languages change in accordance with the changes intechnology, politics, economy, and the needs of translation markets.

Views on Globalization

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, globalization means Tomake global or worldwide in scope or application. 1 This means thattransforming things, no matter what they are, can be from being local orregional into worldly, international or global. Globalization can alsoinvolve people becoming one global community in which theireconomical growth, social prosperity, political forces, and technologicaladvancements turn out to be a common denominator to the whole globe.Therefore, what happens in one country at the social, economic and

1 The American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Edition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin,2001).


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Chapter One2

political levels affects another. Peoples political systems and economicstrategies become integrated as one system, affecting one another.2

Globalization can also mean elimination of boundaries. There are norestrictions on all kinds of exchanges among nations or countries. In acanonical sense, globalization can be used to describe the neoliberal formof economic globalization. Within this context, Noam Chomsky states:

The term "globalization," like most terms of public discourse, has twomeanings: its literal meaning, and a technical sense used for doctrinalpurposes. In its literal sense, "globalization" means internationalintegration. Its strongest proponents since its origins have been the workersmovements and the left (which is why unions are called "internationals"),

and the strongest proponents today are those who meet annually in theWorld Social Forum and its many regional offshoots. In the technical sensedefined by the powerful, they are described as "anti-globalization", whichmeans that they favor globalization directed to the needs and concerns ofpeople, not investors, financial institutions and other sectors of power, withthe interests of people incidental. That's "globalization" in the technicaldoctrinal sense.3

There are others who view globalization as internationalization. Accordingto Jones, globalization is a form of internationalization4, catering for the

increased mobility of factors of production, goods, and services across theuniverse. This has resulted in a truly global market. However, Dalybelieves that while globalization can sometimes be used to meaninternationalization, there is a difference between the two terms.5Internationalization refers to the importance of international traderelations, treaties, etc., whereas globalization refers to the erasure ofnational boundaries for economic purposes. In other words, internationaltrade becomes inter-regional trade. While one can say that globalizationhas created quantitative or qualitative changes in global economic and

political structures, it has often been utilized as a rhetorical means forpromoting the interests of certain groups or countries. This means thatglobalization has been used by interest groups to justify their actions or

2 Bhagwati, Jagdish, In Defense of Globalization.(Oxford, New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 2004).3Chomsky, Noam, Noam Chomsky chats with Washington Post readers. TheWashington Post, March 24 (2006).4 Jones, Barry R. J., The World Turned Upside Down? Globalization and theFuture of the State ( New York: St. Martins Press, 2000).5 Daly, Herman, Globalization vs. Internationalization, Ecological Economics31 (1999): 31-37.


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Globalization and its Impact on Translation 3

their social pressures on both its advocators and those who disparage ordevalue it.

One can see that, to a large extent, there seems to be some consensusabout the fact that globalization is a means of producing interconnectednessand interdependence among different people and different nations.6Sassenbelieves that what is good about globalization is that it involves a varietyof processes that begin to denationalize policies, capital, politicalsubjectivities, urban spaces, temporal frames, among other things.Globalization, she asserts, relates countries of the globe through theirshared economic and political activities. Many developing countries suchas India, Malaysia and (UAE-my addition) have adopted advancement intechnology and have successfully integrated their economies into theworld economy. As a result, they are experiencing economic developmentand expansion in communication networks.7 Croucher believes thatglobalization is a process that combines economic, technological, social,cultural and political forces together. Millions of people are nowintegrated globally through networks or websites into the world wideinformation technology.

Others believe that there seems to be a little agreement on the degree ofinterconnectedness or interdependence.8 As a result, four different viewson the lack of integration and pervasiveness have emerged. One is theview that globalization involves homogenization in the global system.Another view is concerned with the fact that homogenization throughglobalization is highly unlikely, and a third view is concerned with theidea that globalization promotes internationalization. A final viewmaintains that nothing of this sort has happened. Most observers haveinvalidated the most revolutionary views, i.e. that globalization will resultin integration or adaptation of the view that globalization has not impactedus yet. The debate now remains between those who believe thatassimilation, within the global system, remains highly unlikely and those

who believe that globalization will lead to internationalization.

6Sassen, Saskia, Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages(Princeton University Press, 2006).7Croucher, Sheila L., Globalization and Belonging: The Politics of Identity in aChanging World (Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004), 10.8 Jones, Barry R. J., The World Turned Upside Down? Globalization and theFuture of the State .(New York: St. Martins Press, 2000).


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Chapter One4

Causes of Globalization

Globalization does not come from a vacuum. It has to come from forcesthat have contributed to the notion of interdependence, blend andincorporation. Nations cannot exist or survive in isolation. People, too,cannot survive without mutual understanding, support and cooperation,which have resulted from the following:

1. Economic Investment and Free Trade PoliciesIt should be noted at the outset that information technology and mutualunderstanding and cooperation among people and nations cannot alone

justify the emergence of globalization. One important factor that hasresulted in economic, social and political integration is the governmentsefforts to remove economic, social and cultural barriers among peoplesand nations. Many countries have increased their investment in variouseconomic areas, which have resulted in world integration. Such economicintegration would have not come to the light without the encouragementand the support of governments. Increased global integration has resultedin the deregulation of finance and removal of barriers or controls overforeign goods and materials. This policy, taking into account the freeworld market, has changed free trade and helped eliminate controls overcapitals.9

2. Reduction of Investment and Communication CostsThere is no doubt that research and information technology have a lowercost than the cost of physical communication. In the past, the cost oftransforming information or even conducting research had hindered theflow of information. Now, with the reduction of cost, transforminginformation can be easily and speedily done at a minimum cost. Indeed,information technology and communication through multimedia havereduced distances among peoples and nations. It has also helped speed upthe exchange of ideas and information. Because of the advancement oftechnology, cost of transforming ideas and information has been reduced,and the discovery of governments monopolies and ways of exploitationhave come to an end.

9Markusen, James R., Trade vs. Investment Liberalization, National Bureau ofEconomic Research(NBER), Working Paper No. 6231 (1997).


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It should be noted that during the past decade or so, many significantchanges have taken place, which have sped up the flow of information.

The first significant change that mankind has witnessed and experienced isthe expansion of the computer industry. Millions of people now haveaccess to computers, and the cost of buying a computer, compared to thepast, is very minimal. The second change that has impacted the exchangeof information is the materialization of the Internet. This flow ofinformation has helped in two areas: one area is the use of computers,which has extended from being used as a tool for typing or calculating, orstoring information, into a machine that can be used for the purposes ofmedia entertainment, information retrieval, edification and above allcommunication.

Furthermore, other communication devices, i.e. mobile phones, faxmachines, etc., have positively or negatively impacted peoples lives,which, in turn, have helped reduce distances among people and connectone another. People now are able to connect with one another despite thefact that there are thousands of miles between them. They exchange ideas,discuss issues, and send one another all kinds of messages or images.Contrary to the past, the latest breakthrough in the cellular phone industryand Internet technology has made it so easy for people to do the workregardless of where they are and what time of the day it is.

3. Free Private EnterpriseNowadays, it is very hard to conceive the world without technologicaladvancement or novelty. With the removal of economic, social andcultural barriers among peoples and nations, and as a result of the worldfree market and the liberalization of economies, conglomerateorganizations have taken advantage of the world free market and, as aresult, they are engaged in disseminating technologies about how the

production of goods and commodities is done.Furthermore, innovation is taking place everywhere these days and

multinational corporations operate without borders to explore talents andpeople with potentials anywhere in the world. Hamm asserts that newbusiness models are on the rise and that might make it possible to turnlarge swaths of this contentious world into something approximating a trueglobal village.10

10 Hamm, Steve, Race for Perfect: Inside the Quest to Design the UltimatePortable Computer (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008), 312.


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Chapter One6

4. Global NetworksOne cannot ignore the fact that technological innovations are constantlyinvading our private lives. Not only have our lives been impacted by theemergence to technology, but also how corporate companies done theirdaily business. At the social level, technology has helped peoplecooperate with one another, share common interests and work on jointventures. Technology contributed to world integration through setting upglobal networks. Ostry flatly asserts that globalization gave rise tointernational organizations defending human rights and to advocatedemocracy.11 Ostry believes that such organizations would have notexisted had globalization had no impact on world organizations. Suchorganizations helped in demarcating the role of government, in an attemptto protect the interests of people nationally and internationally.

At the social level, the World Commission on the Social Dimension ofGlobalization indicates in its report that globalization has set in motion aprocess of far reaching change, which has affected everyone.12With thenew technology, the world has become interconnected through openpolicies. More social, economic and political interactions have takenplace among national and international organizations as well as amongpeople and individuals across the world. Such interconnectedness

promoted the idea among people that the world is a small community.What happens to one may affect the other. Individuals started to come toterms with the notion that people, no matter where they come from, sharecommon interests and universal values, and this will be directed in thelong run towards building enlightened and democratic global governancefor the sake of everyone.

While the picture of globalization often looks glamorous, this does notmean there are no serious concerns. One of these concerns is the fact thatglobalization created more gaps among individuals and people. Loss of

employment, disappearance of small businesses, monopoly power of localindustries, consumer exploitation, and low quality products are allexamples of negative globalization. Therefore, unbalanced outcomesamong people were created, and wealth is not evenly distributed. Even inthe eyes of many people, globalization has not provided them with theirlegitimate aspirations for a respectable job, better future and better life fortheir children.

11Ostry, Sylvia, The WTO after Seattle: Somethings Happening Here, What it is

Aint Exactly Clear, presented to the American Economic Association(2001).12 World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization (2004).International Labor Office (ILO). Genve, Switzerland.


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Globalization and Translation

The effect of globalization had a tremendous linguistic and social impacton translation or translation studies simply because globalizationnecessitated translation. Nowadays, there are more demands ontranslation services requested by educational institutions and privatecompanies than any other time, simply because parts of the world arebecoming interested in one another due to many reasons, i.e. worldconflicts and clashes, world economic crisis, shared concerns, commoninterests, etc. This was triggered through the need for technology, whichhas helped, to a large extent, reduce the cost of disseminating orexchanging information. This in turn has led to two things: one is thespread of English as a world language, and the second is the globaldemand on translation.13 Pym describes globalization as an economicprocess, impacting the social role of translation.14 Such a role willdefinitely affect the political organization of translation studies as ascholarly discipline. Pym states:

There are, however, political processes that build on globalization butshould not be identified with it. Those processes also have consequencesfor translation but are not to be considered inevitable. Some of them can be

resisted or influenced by the use or non-use of translation. Those politicalprocesses can thus be indirectly affected by a scholarly Translation Studies,which might thus develop its own politics with respect to globalization.This means that Translation Studies should seek to understand and explainthe effects of globalization, without pretending to resist them all. At thesame time, it should attempt to influence the more negative politicalprocesses within its reach, developing its political agenda and cultivatingits own political organization. In this, the dialectics play out between thetechnological and the political, between the things we must live with andthe things we should try to change. Only with this double vision should we

attempt to take a position with respect to globalization.As for the impact of technology, Pym argues that globalization is aconsequence of cost reduction in communication and transportation. It is

just a set of things no more or less. It takes place only when distancesamong nations and cultures become closer, not physically orgeographically of course, but mentally or intellectually. So, as technology

13House, Juliane, English as a Global Lingua Franca-A Threat to Multilingualism?in Globalization and Aspects of Translatio (Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK:

Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010).14 Pym, Anthony, Globalization and the Politics of Translation Studies,Intercultural Studies Group(Tarragona, Spain: Universitat Rovira, 2003).


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Chapter One8

advances, things can move further and more efficiently. Even at thecommunication level, people can communicate effectively and efficiently.

The only thing that was affected here by technology is the cost of suchcommunication. However, different technologies, Pym correctly pointsout, structures these costs in different ways. Slight changes cansometimes have a large scale effect. The move from using parchment topaper made rewriting inexpensive, and also made multiple revisionspossible. Teams worked greatly and distribution was wider. The arrivaland use of paper was concurrent with the translation activities in Baghdadin the 9th and the 10th tenth centuries. This has led to the creation ofconventions and the standardization of local languages, while specifictexts promoted greater awareness of individual discourse (i.e. style of theauthor) with corresponding calls for translators.15

Away from the business context of globalization, one cannot deny thefact that globalization and translation are intertwined.16 Globalization hasalways been a significant aspect of translation, simply because translationbrings cultures closer. With the age of globalization and technology, andthe emergence so many new technical and nontechnical words, thetranslator has no choice but to adopt (not adapt) a set of foreign words thatenrich the target language, so it becomes more understandable to thereader. According to Wiersema17 and House18, people as well astranslators need to come to terms with the fact that words adopted fromthe target language can be enlightening to the reader as they genuinelymirror other cultures and their traditions. To do so, and with theadvancement of technology, translators have no option but to adopt aforeign word with or without explanation to rewrite the text so it becomescomprehensible to the reader. It could be that this aspect of translation canbe applicable to the translation of literary or scientific texts, but the factthat globalization has brought with it so many innovations with regard toall genres is a case in point. In Arabic, for example, words that emerged

as a result of technology such as fax, telex, telegraph, mobile, computer,laptop, camera, and microwave, have already been adopted, even though

15 Pym, Anthony, Negotiating the Frontier: Translators and Intercultures inHispanic History (Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing, 2000).16House, Juliane, Translation (UK: Oxford University Press, 2009).17 Wiersema, Nico, Globalization and Translation: A discussion of the effect ofglobalization on today's translation, Translation Journal 8, 1 (2004). Available

online http://accurapid.com/journal/27liter.htm.18House, Juliane, Translation Quality Assessment: A Model Revisited (Tuebingen:Gunter Narr Verlag, 1997).


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their counterparts exist in Arabic. If the Arabic adaptation of foreignwords is used, then translators can only stymie the reader.

Technology and Translation

One may think that technology is equal to globalization as globalization isassociated with world advancement in technology. However, therelationship between globalization and technology is that of cause andeffect. Globalization is a consequence of technological advancement, andthe consequence of such globalized technology is the daily translationservices we see everywhere. It is not only translators who have been

impacted by globalized technology, but also the daily lives of manypeople, their cultures and various translation businesses. Globalizationhas also affected how translators do their work and their style. This hadforced translators to redefine their services.

At the social level, globalization has helped translators becomesignificant mediators among cultures through a better understanding thatcan be accomplished. One cannot deny that, as a result of globalization,people develop a deep interest in familiarizing themselves with othercultures, and what better way to do this but through translation.

Taking a cursory look at what is going on now and with the process ofglobalization moving faster than ever, one cannot help but confirm that inthe next few years, the translation market will be more overpoweringlyaffected than any other market, simply because of the disappearance ofnational boundaries and custom tariffs. Local markets will not beprotected any more, and goods will be sold internationally. As a result ofthis, there will be a big demand for translation.

Furthermore, internet services have become a way of life, and with theincreased demand on such services, there will be a demand on translationand translators. One of the significant aspects of globalization is that itimpacted literary translation. These texts will become, if not already have,out of the ordinary and as a result, these translations will be needed toprovide a better understanding of other cultures. It becomes very apparentthese days that we are in a rush to do everything, and translation can bedone anywhere in the world. With the pursuit for globalized strategies,there will be an increase on the quality of translation, i.e. translation ofadvertisements. In a changing world economy, translation will always beon the rise and translators will always be involved in cross culturaltranslations. Thanks to advances in technology, which make all of this

easy!


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Chapter One10

Conclusion

As indicated above, and over the past decade, globalization has beenfervently discussed by scholars in the field of translation and those in otherfields, i.e. industry, management, politics, economics, etc. Interpretationof globalization varied from positive to negative. At one extreme,globalization has been perceived as an overpowering force for bringingeconomic affluence to people and nations throughout the world. At theother, it has been perceived as a pandemic for all modern problems. Onekey characteristic that can be ascribed to globalization is that it helpedliberalize foreign and global trade. It also helped create global marketcompetition, where international financial flows have been long-drawn-out. This has come from several factors: one is the removal of nationalbarriers and replacing them with money-making transactions, and thisallowed the expansion of global markets and affected the range of goodsand services. The second factor is the role of technology which hasimpacted areas such as information technology and all means ofcommunication. Costs of transmitting information are greatly reduced,and time and distance barriers have been abridged.

At the translation level, globalization has impacted the lives ofeveryone, including the profession of translation and the lives oftranslators. With the new technology and the emergence of new wordsand concepts, translators have to incorporate globalization into their dailypractices. At the cultural level, translation can bridge the gap betweenpeoples and nations, and globalization has contributed in a more effectiveway towards understanding the source language and culture.


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CHAPTER TWO

ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LINGUA FRANCA:ATHREAT TO MULTILINGUALISM?

JULIANE HOUSERESEARCH CENTER ON MULTILINGUALISM

UNIVERSITY OF HAMBURG

Introduction

In this chapter, I want to discuss an issue which is currently widelydebated: whether and to what degree English as the worlds mostprestigious language in its role as a global lingua franca is a threat to

multilingualism. I will first clarify what the term English as a linguafranca (ELF) has come to mean; secondly I will discuss the controversialissue of whether ELF is a threat to multilingualism or rather provides achance for global understanding from four perspectives: (1) socio-political, (2) linguistic, (3) psycholinguistic and (4) pedagogic. In the thirdand final part of this paper I will draw some conclusions.

English as a Lingua Franca-Clarification of Terminology

The concept of a lingua franca in its original sense is very different fromthe role which the English language is currently playing on the worldstage. In its original meaning, a lingua franca - the term comes fromArabic lisan al farang- was simply an intermediary or contact languageused, for instance, by speakers of Arabic with travellers from WesternEurope. Its meaning was later extended to describe a language ofcommerce in general, a rather stable variety with little room for individualvariation. This meaning is clearly not applicable to today's global English,whose major feature is its enormous functional flexibility and spread

across many different linguistic, geographical and cultural areas, as well as


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Chapter Two12

its openness for foreign forms.1ELF in both intranational and internationalcommunication can be regarded as a special type of intercultural

communication where there is no consistency of form that goes beyondthe participant level, i.e. where each combination of interactants seem tonegotiate and govern their own variety of lingua franca use in terms ofproficiency level, uses of code-mixing, degree of pidginization etc. Onemight even go as far as saying that with every Korean, Italian andGerman, Dutch and Frenchman who interacts in English as a mediatinglanguage there arises a unique and genuine speech community where theroles and rules of mutual understanding have to first be established.

Such remarkable formal (and functional) flexibility coupled with atruly global spread has led to another new, and indeed remarkable, feature:that the number of non-native speakers is now substantially larger than itsnative speakers (the ratio is about 4 to 1, tendency rising). This means thatEnglish in its role as a global lingua franca is increasingly NOT owned byits native speakers, and this progressive de-owning process makes for aparallel increase in the diversification of the English language through aseries of acculturation and nativisation processes. The linguisticconsequences of such large-scale processes of convergence and divergenceare numerous non-native varieties. And this means, of course, that there isno monolithic hegemonic English voice - but rather a diversity of manydifferent voices, which reflect differences in the social, economic andpolitical backgrounds of its speakers. In sum, then, the so-called innercircle in Braj Kachrus famous three-circles-model2 consisting of themost influential group, i.e. native speakers of English and the dominant,hegemonic variety they speak are steadily losing influence in the worldtoday.

ELF can further not be described as a language for specific purposes, asort of pidgin or a Creole language, and it certainly is not some kind offoreigner talk, nor is it a type of learner language. The interlanguage

paradigm introduced in the late sixties of the last century in AppliedLinguistics and Second Language Acquisition Research with its focus onthe deficits of learners of a foreign or second language vis a vis the native

1 Firth, A., The Discursive Accomplishment of Normality On lingua franca

English and Conversation Analysis. Journal of Pragmatics,26 (1996): 237-260.2 Kachru, B., The Other Tongue: English Across Cultures (Chicago: ChicagoUniversity Press, 1992).


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English as a Global Lingua Franca: A Threat to Multilingualism 13

norm are not valid in the context of ELF.3Instead of an ELF speaker being regarded as a learner of English as the

target language, it is rather the multilingual individual and his or hermulticompetence4 who is to be taken as a norm or yardstick fordescribing and explaining what an ELF speaker does when he is engagedin ELF communication. Here we can look for support from the richliterature on bilingualism and multilingualism, where the notion of asimultaneous activation of speakers native tongue and ELF in thecognitive structures of bilingual or multilingual subjects is widelyaccepted today.5

Another interesting suggestion with regard to capturing the notionELF comes from Henry Widdowson6, who has suggested that ELF is atype of register, a term well known from systemic functional linguisticsand linguistic stylistics, the idea being that when the English language as avirtual language is employed in different contexts of use, for differentpurposes, by different people, fulfills different functions and is changedaccordingly.

In sum, we can say that the main characteristic of English as a linguafranca is its multiplicity of voices. English as a lingua franca is a languagefor communication, i.e. a medium that can be given substance withdifferent national, regional, local, and individual cultural identities.English as such does not carry these identities; it is not a language foridentification. When English is used as a language for communication, itis in principle neutral with regard to the different socio-culturalbackgrounds of its users, and has thus undoubtedly great potential forinternational understanding - precisely because there is no fixed norm, andbecause lingua franca speakers must always work out anew in differentcommunities of practice- a joint linguistic, intercultural and behaviouralbases for their communication.

3Firth, A., Doing not being a foreign language learner: English as a lingua francain the workplace and (some) implications for SLA,IRAL 47/1 (2009): 127-156.Firth, A. and J. Wagner, Second/foreign language learning as a socialaccomplishment: elaborations on a reconceptualized SLA, Modern LanguageJournal, 91(Focus Issue 2007): 800-819.4Cook, V.,Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition(New York: St. MartinsPress, 1993).5Grosjean, F., The bilinguals language modes. In One Mind, Two Lanauges:Bilingual Language Processing (MA: Blackwell, 2001) 1-22.6Widdowson, H.,Defining Issues in English Language Teaching (Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 2003).


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Chapter Two14

English as a Lingua Franca Viewed

from Four Perspectives

1. The Socio-Political PerspectiveWe may ask the legitimate question: Why should it be English and notany other language which is currently the worlds most frequentlyemployed lingua franca? David Crystal7has pointed out that the BritishEmpire, present day US global power, and an ever increasing technology-driven need for easy international border-crossing communication as wellas a preference for a type of (assumed) neutral ground8 has paved the

way for ELF. This holds particularly true in countries with very manydifferent languages and dialects (e.g. India). Another reason often given isthat English is preferred by many people because it is supposedly asimple code a rather dubious reason.9

But what are we to make of the claim made by proponents of what hassometimes been called liberation linguistics that ELF poses a real threatto other languages, that it is a killer language, a perfidious agent oflinguistic imperialism? Here one needs to point out that since ELF is alanguage with the currently widest communicative range, many people- ifnot most- choose to use it out of their own free will, and they make anintuitive distinction between ELF as a language for communication andtheir native languages as their language(s) for identification. Theseindigenous languages and ELF are then NOT in competition, rather theysupplement each other, there is not an either-or situation. Claire Kramschgives a beautiful, moving and poetic example of this perceived differencebetween ones native tongue and ELF:

As for English I do speak the language but I don't think I'll ever talk it.English flows from the mind to the tongue and then to the pages of books...

I only talk Vietnamese. I talk it with all my senses. Vietnamese does notstop on my tongue, but flows with the warm, soothing lotus tea down mythroat like a river giving life to the landscape in her path. It rises to mymind along the vivid images of my grandmother's house. 10

7Crystal, D., English as a Global Language (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1997).8 Svartvik, J. and G. Leech, English - One Tongue, Many Voices (Australia:Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).9 Spielmann, D., English as Lingua Franca: A Simplified Code, M.A. Thesis

(Hamburg University, 2007).10 Kramsch, C., Language Thieves, in Sachen Deutsch als Fremdsprache(Hohengehren: Schneider, 2002) 91-103.


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English as a Global Lingua Franca: A Threat to Multilingualism 15

But what about the so-called Linguistic Human Right which says thateverybody has the right to use the language of their choice, here, now, and

everywhere? But, in the majority of cases, ELF speakers know exactlywhat they are doing when they prefer ELF over other languages to theirown advantage. A dogmatic insistence on speaking, e.g. ones nativelanguage, may well be considered paternalistic.11 De Swaan nicelypinpoints the issue:

Recently, a movement to right the wrongs of language hegemony hasspread across the Western world, advocating the right of all people tospeak the language of their choice, to fight language imperialism abroadand linguicism at home, to strengthen language rights in international

law. Alas, what decides is not the right of human beings to speak whateverlanguage they wish, but the freedom of everybody else to ignore what theysay in the language of their choice.12

Giving ELF users a bad conscience because they deliberately make use ofELF as a language of communication puts them unnecessarily- into adouble-bind situation, as the present author has often experienced herselfat conferences and as colleagues from many countries have testified. Hereis an example taken from an e-mail by a colleague from Hong Kong.

"I always feel that non-native speakers of English are forever caught in akind of double bind. Take for example those of us who were brought up inHong Kong. I got criticized at school and at university if I didn't speakEnglish, but I also got criticized (mostly by those who pretended to bepolitically correct) if I spoke English. It was only in the last few years thatI stopped wishing I had two mouths. English, I believe, can never replaceour mother tongue, certainly not where the emotional intensity of feelingsis concerned.

Rather than acting as a killer language, ELF can also give rise to the

following paradoxical situation: using ELF as a language forcommunication often strengthens the use of indigenous languages foridentification purposes and as a vehicle of protest against ELF dominance.We therefore witness today strong and healthy counter-currents, even inthe modern music scene and the internet, once thought to be classic ELFdominated media. Instead of large-scale language loss, we are thus

11Brutt-Griffler, J., Who do you think you are, where do you think you are?:Language policy and the political economy in South Africa. In The Globalizationof English and the English Language Classroom (Tbingen: Narr, 2005) 25-37.Fraser Gupta, A., Language Rights,English Today50 (2009): 24-26.12De Swaan, A., Words of the World (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001).


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Chapter Two16

confronted with a co-existence and sometimes even merging of ELF andnative varieties. Thus Bloch13 documents the expression of Asian

rhetorical traditions in the medium of the English language, and Lam

14

speaks of newly emerging mixed varieties of Chinese and ELFstrategically used to demonstrate and expand speakers multilingualcompetence.

2. The Linguistic Perspective

One of the main arguments against ELF has been the following: ELFspeakers are at a severe disadvantaging vis a vis native speakers of

English. They cannot express themselves with the finesse, nuances andsubtlety which they have in their native language, and often suffer fromthe reduced personality syndrome. However, we may ask, is thisnecessarily so? Here we must abandon anecdotal impressions andprojections and look at some results of empirical studies that haveexamined what actually happens when ELF speakers perform ininteractions.15

13

Bloch, J., Second Language Cyber Rhetoric: A study of Chinese L2 writers inan online usenet group, Language Learning & Technology8:3 (2004): 66-82.14 Lesznyk, ., Communication in English as an International Lingua Franca(Norderstedt: Books on Demand, 2004).15Baumgarten, N. & J. House, Speaker stances in native and non-native English

conversation In Receptive Multilingualism (Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2007)195-216.

Firth, A., The Discursive Accomplishment of Normality on lingua francaEnglish and Conversation Analysis, Journal of Pragmatics26 (1996): 237-260.

. Doing not being a foreign language learner: English as a lingua franca in theworkplace and (some) implications for SLA, IRAL 47 (Special Issue, 2009):127-156.

House, J., Misunderstanding in intercultural communication: Interactions inEnglish as a lingua franca and the myth of mutual intelligibility. InTeachingand Learning English as a Global Language(Tbingen: Stauffenburg, 1999)73-93.

. Maintenance and Convergence in Covert Translation English-German, inInformation Structure in a Cross-Linguistic Perspective(Amsterdam: Rodopi,2002) 199-213.

. Communicating in English as a lingua franca, in EUROSLA Yearbook 2

(Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2002) 243-261.. English as a lingua franca: A threat to multilingualism? Journal of

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Globalization and Aspects of Translation